#also i had covid and a tonsil infection last year and both of those were AWFUL and so now when my throat does the inflamed pain thing i ten

[kirkwallsquad]

i feel like im going insane why is my family responding to me going "hey i have a massive throatache, i think something's inflamed, and speaking hurts so i can't go to brunch today" the most lukewarm "well alright if you insist" nonsense like.... not to be whiny or anything but hello have u considered sympathy ;;;;;;

[coronaviruscorner]

What should we really be worried about instead of the AstraZeneca vaccine?

As the Sydney outbreak continues to grow, I thought now would be a good time to write my first post in over a year, especially as I’m currently working as an infectious diseases doctor at a Sydney Hospital. At the time of writing, NSW is experiencing an average of 400 cases per day over the last week. Since the 29th of June, average case numbers have doubled four times, taking approximately 12 days to double, without showing any signs of slowing down. This means that unless we can somehow slow things down, which is unlikely given that we have already been in lockdown for 7 weeks, we can expect to be reaching close to 1000 cases per day by the end of August, and as many as 4000 per day by the end of September.

The delta variant is far more transmissible than other COVID-19 strains, and every day, I check the NSW health facebook page and watch with dismay as the number of people hospitalised with COVID-19 grows. Just last week, a man in his 30s died at a NSW hospital from COVID-19. A close friend of mine works in an intensive care unit at a Western Sydney Hospital, and tells me that the hospital and staff are stretched to their absolute limit.

Vaccination reduces the risk of severe COVID-19 by approximately 90%, and it is essential that we turn up in droves to get vaccinated to protect ourselves, and each other; particularly those that are vulnerable and immunosuppressed and may be unable to receive the vaccine themselves.

The risk of death from the AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine (AZ) is approximately one in a million, which can be difficult to quantify in real terms. So let’s examine some things that are more likely to kill us than AZ.

Ever had surgery requiring a general anaesthetic? I have had four - (three broken bones, and one ruptured appendix) - the risk of death from a single general anaesthetic in Australia is about 17 in a million - 17 times higher than the risk of AZ, although the risk for healthy patients is closer to 5 in a million. But if you were getting your tonsils out or having a hernia operation, you wouldn’t refuse the operation because of the tiny risk of death - so why treat AZ any differently?

In Australia, over 100 people are struck by lightning every year - so your risk of being struck by lightning this year is four times your risk of death from AZ! Really we should be much more worried going outside in the rain than we are about getting AZ. Perhaps we should boycott those Thor movies!

Each year, more than 1000 Australians are killed in car accidents, which is over 40 deaths per million - so we should all be orders of magnitude more worried about our risk of death from driving in the next year than we should about AZ. And that number includes people that don’t own cars or drive, so for those of us that drive the risk is even higher. In fact, you are even more likely to drown in the bath in the next year (1.5 in a million) than you are to die of AZ.

This post is not intended to force us all to become hermits who never go outside when it’s cloudy, develop a phobia of cars or avoid baths at all costs. Rather, it is to point out that essentially everything we do carries some risk associated with it, but we constantly accept and ignore negligible risks every day, as we should!

The most important comparison, however, is the risk of death from COVID-19. If you catch COVID-19, the overall global death rate is about 2% - a staggering 20,000 deaths per million cases. The death rate in Australia, you ask? 2.5% - 25,000 people per million! Sure, we may not have a million COVID cases (thank goodness!) But with 966 deaths so far, Australia has already had 39 deaths per million people in our population; and that number will unfortunately only rise over the next few weeks as more people die in NSW every single day.

There is good news, though! Each of the currently available COVID-19 vaccines reduces your risk of death from the delta variant by over 85% after you have received both doses. They also reduce your risk of infection, as well as your risk of severe disease. So, my Australian friends, please talk to your GP about getting vaccinated, with whatever vaccine you are eligible for, as soon as you can!

Every day that you delay getting vaccinated, you unfortunately are making a decision to expose yourself to risk of significant harm from COVID. Get vaccinated to protect those vulnerable individuals in the community that cannot be vaccinated Get vaccinated to protect the family that you come home to, or that you stay home for. And finally, get vaccinated to protect yourself.

Of course, if you have any questions or concerns, please do discuss them with your GP, especially if you have any personal risk factors for clotting or past history of severe adverse reactions to vaccines. This post is general advice only, and cannot replace a personal consultation with your GP.